Showing posts with label almost human recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label almost human recap. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2014

'Almost Human' Season 1 Finale GifTweetCap: Beware the 'Straw Man'

Most of the following gifs can be found on this Tumblr post. "Straw Man," the Season 1 finale of Almost Human, is packed with backstory. We finally learn a bit more about Kennex (Karl Urban)! Even better than the backstory, however, is the growing "robromance" between Dorian (Michael Ealy) and Kennex. This episode really took it to a new level. Some fans even joined in for a tweetout before the show, causing the hashtag #AlmostHumanLives to trend in the USA! Want to ensure its renewal? Join Almost Humaniacs on Facebook for more info.
The episode begins with homeless people waiting in line for pills from a vending machine. One poor girl (Christie Burke) is tormented by a meanie (Mik Byskov), and a guy in a wheelchair comes to her rescue before she gets her pill.
The shelter is full, so Wheelchair Man offers to show her a better shelter out of the kindness of his heart. Then he stabs her in the wrist with a drug-ring (as in, a ring with a teeny needle full of drugs on it), stands up, and uses his wheelchair to take her to his shady-looking van.
Meanwhile, Dorian's contract is up for renewal, so Rudy (Mackenzie Crook), Maldonado (Lili Taylor), Kennex and Dorian are all being questioned to determine whether he should continue in the field. They all have nice things to say, including Rudy, who suggests that he would trust Dorian to watch his child... more than he would trust himself... if he had a child... except he's single... but if he found the right one... not that the interviewer he happened to gesture toward (Graeme Duffy) is the one, but... well, he could be!
When the interviews are finished, Kennex begins freaking Dorian out by telling him that everything the interviewers did is outside the norm. Then, he informs Dorian that he told them basically all of the bad things Dorian has ever done, which causes Dorian to become highly apologetic. Of course, it's all a prank. Kennex wouldn't tell them all that, silly "D"!
Later, the girl who had been put in the van shows up dead -- and filled with straw. Kennex does the honors of cutting open the stitches to reveal the straw.
Kennex recognizes the MO (modus operandi, in case you were wondering). His father had worked the same type of case about 10 years earlier, and Michael Costa (William 'Big Sleeps' Stewart), the man accused of the crime, was sentenced to life in prison and put on "the Red List" for psychopathic tendencies based on a brain scan.
Kennex and Dorian visit Costa in prison, and he insists that he's innocent. He also says that "Kennex" (as in, John's father, Edward, not knowing that John is his son) believed him, because he had found proof of his innocence... then he died two weeks later. Coincidence? Well, Edward Kennex was also concerned about crooked cops.
Meanwhile, Straw Wheelchair Man picks up another victim (Rami Kahlon).
When Kennex attempts to access his dad's old case files, he's presented with an access denied error. The problem is that his father had been under investigation for stealing from the evidence locker when he died. He tells Maldonado about the error, and she gets him access. Dorian doesn't seem very pleased when Kennex requests that Dorian go see Rudy while he checks his dad's files alone.
Kennex Sr.'s files prove that he believed in Costa's innocence, and they also contain photos of victims with their feet circled.
When Dorian arrives at Rudy's lab, Rudy shares an odd discovery: there was nothing at all under the victims' fingernails, which is impossible to pull off, even with a good cleaning.
Dorian asks whether Rudy has heard anything about Dorian being renewed, and Rudy says that everything should be fine, minus one hiccup: he suggested that he would want Dorian to have his baby, and they may have misunderstood him. Ya think?
His suggestion to Dorian to ensure a better chance of renewal is to act like an MX, since they are so popular. What are you thinking, Rudy?!
When Kennex arrives, he shares the fact that his father had circled the feet of the victims, and asks Dorian if he sees any similarities. Dorian says the victim is flat footed, which causes Rudy's brain to explode. He sets up a biological printer, then explains how printed bodies would have settled in their standing positions, creating flat feet. Organs cannot be printed properly, however, so the killer would have had to fill the printed bodies with straw to hide the fact that they weren't the real live victims. Rudy then prints out a cupcake for his missed birthday.
The gang realizes that the killer must be keeping the victims alive for some nefarious reason, and printing copies of them so everyone will think they're dead, and will stop looking for them.
The gang finds the latest printed copy of the newest victim, and Kennex notices a pinprick on on her finger (the skin is a perfect replica of the original). Dorian says that the previous victim also had a pinprick, and suggests it came from a pill machine. Pill machines are located next to shelters, so Maldonado sends MXs to all shelters but two -- the two where Kennex and Dorian, and Det. Paul (Michael Irby) will be.
As Paul watches out for the killer, whom they later learn is named Glen Dunbar, he befriends a homeless guy (Alex Barima) over a few "your mom" jokes, and shares some Bitcoins with him. Awww... Paul's not an asshat after all!
While Dorian and Kennex lookout for Glen, Dorian decides to sing a little Lionel Richie. The pitchy tune gives Kennex a headache. When Dorian asks whether Kennex's dad was capable of stealing evidence, John tells a story detailing how his dad was one of the most honest cops in the department: that was the reason John became a cop.
The plan works, and Glen is lured away from the MX-infested shelters. Unfortunately, Paul sees something fishy when it's already too late: the sunglasses of his new buddy are on the ground, and the shady van is driving away!
They track the van, and find Paul's buddy unconscious but still alive. Inside the nearby warehouse, they find a much less living victim who looks as if he's been there for a very longer time. The two women taken recently are both found alive.
The MXs carry off the living victims, while Dorian takes off to meet a few others after some shots are fired in their location. Dorian finds Glen apparently dead, but it's just a printed decoy of him.
Of course, Kennex stays behind by himself to look through the darkest, most eerie corners of the warehouse for evidence. Glen surprises him, knocks him around and begins strangling him. Kennex sure gets choked out a lot. It must be because of his perfect choke-face. A stab to Glen's shoulder has little effect, but is enough to get thrown across the room again, so Kennex can fire a bunch of holes into him, killing him. Buh-bye.
Turns out Glen is a cyborg, and he was kidnapping people to test out his tech improvements. When John's dad had deduced that Glen had stolen a bio printer from evidence with the help of a cop, Glen had him killed, then killed the dirty cop a week later. So, in solving this case, Kennex cleared his dad's name, saved three victims before they died, and helped release an innocent man from prison.
Later, Dorian takes Rudy's advice, walking and talking like an MX in his next meeting.
But then the reviewer (Ben Wilkinson) informs Dorian that he's only there to let Dorian know that he's been renewed*, and that Kennex was the reason. Dorian gets a little teary-eyed knowing that Kennex have him such a glowing review*.
*Dorian is "almost human."
Dorian uses Kennex's locator chip to find him at his favorite place: a noodle restaurant. He then gives John a much improved synthetic leg to replace his old one, and to thank him for causing his contract to be renewed.
After such a heartfelt "thank you" from John, Dorian begins full-on crying his little synthetic eyes out. This makes Kennex highly uncomfortable, which is utterly hilarious. But it's also fun to revise history just a bit to make the situation seem slightly different:
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Thursday, February 27, 2014

'Almost Human' GifTweetCap: Creep Be-Holding Beautiful Eyes

Part 1 of these gifs are available in this Tumblr post, and part 2 is on this post. Scroll to the bottom for more into on next week's season finale tweetfest, and ways to help the show get a Season 2. "Beholder" contains everything an Almost Human fan could want. It has a good dose of Fringiness (as in, similar to the much-loved sci-fi show, Fringe), Kennex-Dorian car-ride banter, and a bit of unexpected hilarity in what seemed to be a nod to Total Recall. In fact, the entire episode was a nod to one of the best episodes of one of the best sci-fi shows of all time: the "The Eye of the Beholder" episode of The Twilight Zone.

The episode "knocks it out of the park" right at the beginning with some awesome holo-golf. I don't even like golf, but this is pretty cool!
Unfortunately, a creeper (Michael Eklund) is spying on the golfer (Tommy Douglas), and quickly tases him when he notices something is up. Then, the bad guy shoots him up with something that causes a very "Fringie" wavering of the man's lip.
Next up: Kennex (Karl Urban) eats a doughnut, and it's somehow way more awesome than any other doughnut-eating cop, ever.
As Kennex enjoys doughnut heaven, Dorian (Michael Ealy) decides to slap him out of bliss by answering his phone, after Kennex insists that he leave it alone. Dorian then proceeds to tell "Samantha" just how much Kennex doesn't want to talk to her. Afterward, Kennex admits that Samantha "holo-blocked" him at dinner by inviting everyone she knows, and taking every call.
Kennex prepares to teach Dorian a few things about the bro-code, when Stahl (Minka Kelly) interrupts with an urgent matter: a Chrome (someone genetically engineered, the way she is), and 2036 Detroit Olympics participant, has died of apparently natural causes. When Kennex appears confused, Stahl explains that the man must have been murdered, because Chroming costs big money, and most of that goes toward not dying of natural causes.
Dorian confirms that the golfer was murdered when he shoots himself up with a little Chrome-DNA. The DNA suggests he was murdered by seven people, but it turns out they were all murdered in the same way. Apparently, our bad guy figures the needle doesn't need to be clean if he's just killing them anyway.
Then we see what the killer, whom we later learn is named as Eric, is doing: taking the victims' DNA, and having a doctor (John Shaw) create some sort of serum out of it, so he can become the Frankenstein of beauty. That sounds like an oxymoron, but apparently, the disgusting phase is supposed to be temporary.
The murder is leaked to the press because Chromes are a tight-knit group. Stahl goes it alone when visiting the Chrome club that noticed its missing member, but a bitch-faced Chrome (Emilie Ullerup) is uncooperative, because she cares more about the purity of her club that about catching a murderer.
Stahl finally gets somewhere when Jake (Jesse Hutch), a cute Chrome guy, notices what's going on. He also gets her some surveillance video so she can see whether the dead Chrome was being followed.
Rudy (Mackenzie Crook) proves that seven other people died from the same drug. He lifts up one of the holo-bodies for better viewing.
The others weren't Chromes, but were all good-looking people. In fact, they never would have known about the murders if it hadn't been for the death of a Chrome. As such, Rudy is quite perturbed that he was not notified of this "Beauty Killer," as he is clearly a beautiful man.
Rudy discovers what is happening: the man is stealing facial parts using a drug that had been tested but never released to the public. Dorian and Kennex visit one of the doctors (Matthew Harrison) who performed the drug trials. He explains how the drug works with an example: Kennex could have asked to have Dorian's perfect nose, then they would have performed nanobot-surgery to give Kennex the same nose. The only problem? The donors die, and the recipients become disfigured.
Later, Eric comes across his new eyes -- is this another nod to "The Eye of the Beholder"? He seems so friendly with his new victim (Alex Duncan), but of course, he's only being friendly with his new body parts, not the human beings behind them. He seems to think that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" means that you have to have beauty in your eyes, with which you behold the objects from which you will steal those eyes.
... and now he's got perfect, beautiful green eyes to go with his nasty face.
Eric needs a specific tool to perform the procedure, so Kennex seeks out Dicarlo (Tony Cox), a man who may know more about it. He finds Dicarlo hiding inside an odd choice of bots.
Using Dicarlo's information, they find the location of the doctor who has been injecting Eric with his new face, and had formerly been involved in the trials. He takes a large dose of adrenaline in the hopes of fighting off Kennex and Dorian, but this results in his death -- after giving Kennex a good choke. Dorian attempts to revive him, but fails. Good riddance!
They find the final victim using facial recognition on the last feature Eric wants to steal: cheek bones. They base the search on a photo of the goal features found at the doctor's secret lab. Unfortunately, Eric will still be able to find a new victim with similar cheek bones.
Through some clever detective work, Kennex realizes that all the victims have new 3D DMV photos, which Kennex was unable to get, even after waiting for hours. He speculates whether the killer works for the DMV, and is correct in his assessment.
Meanwhile, Eric sits at home, creepily eyeing Judy (Rhonda Dent), a woman across the way, as "Crimson and Clover" plays. She turns out to be a woman he met online, and fell in love with. He's trying to look perfect for her, and she's anxious to meet him. With the cops closing in, Eric decides to pay her an early visit. Guess what? She's blind! Queue The Twilight Zone music...
Kennex is clever a second time when he notices the well-worn spot where Eric has been spying on his Internet soul-mate, and breaks into her apartment to chase him up to the roof of her building.
Kennex is a bit depressed after seeing the lonely Eric commit suicide, so Dorian offers to watch him drink. That got "a little weird last time," so Kennex has a better idea: stop being lonely by going for the girl he really wants. Unfortunately, he's late to the party. Jake got there first.
If only Kennex had experienced that heart-broken feeling before trying to talk Eric off the ledge. Maybe he would have known what to say. The blind girl went with her heart. The funny thing is that Stahl went with her heart after realizing that perfect Chromes can be human too. Not all of them are asshats.
See that? "Beholder" has many parallels with The Twilight Zone episode. Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder -- "ugly" people can actually be ugly on the inside, and perfect people can be beautiful on the inside, and vice versa. You just never know what a person is really like, whether they appear to you to be beautiful or ugly, until you get to know them.

Want Almost Human Season 2?

Almost Human is by no means "certain to be canceled," but it is "on the bubble." It could go either way. So, next week is our last chance to make a good showing for our favorite show. Let's do this!

1. Tell your friends to watch, and live tweet. You never know when you may be quoted in my next article, or elsewhere! Networks are beginning to look more and more at live discussion events, especially since it indicates that people are watching live.

2. Next week, we will most likely be tweeting #AlmostHumanLives to push for renewal (for this episode, it was #RenewAlmostHuman). I'll update this if that changes. Join the Almost Humaniacs Facebook group, and the Almost Human Task Force for more information, and for more Almost Human fun!

3. In addition, RewardTV is a Nielsen site that gives away prizes for taking TV trivia quizzes. Pay attention to the commercials during the finale, then take the quiz. You can only take the quiz the day after the show, and then it goes away... but they love when you get the questions about the ads correct. That means the advertisements are working, and that everyone is making money off the show. That's the whole reason they want people to watch live... to make advertising money.

4. By all means, if you have a Nielsen box, you should definitely be watching live so that you'll count in the ratings.
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